Open AccessVLSI implementation of coupled MRF model using pulse‐coupled phase oscillators
Author(s) -
Matsuzaka Kenji,
Tanaka Hideki,
Ohkubo Satoru,
Morie Takashi
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
electronics letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.375
H-Index - 146
ISSN - 1350-911X
DOI - 10.1049/el.2014.2105
Subject(s) - very large scale integration , phase (matter) , electronic engineering , pulse (music) , computer science , physics , materials science , engineering , telecommunications , quantum mechanics , detector
Efficient pixel‐parallel image processing using a pulse‐coupled phase oscillator model and its very large scale integration (VLSI) implementation is proposed. A processing unit that corresponds to a pixel of an image transmits spike pulses to other units, and updates its own analogue state value at timing when spikes come from other units. From a VLSI implementation point of view, this mechanism is suitable for very low‐power operation because analogue buffers are unnecessary for data transmission. On the basis of this model, a VLSI image processor chip that performs a coupled Markov random field model for image region segmentation is designed and fabricated. A very low‐power VLSI design has been achieved by the combination of an analogue oscillator and digital coupling function generator circuits with time‐domain computation. The processing performance of the fabricated oscillator‐based image processor chip using a 0.25 μm CMOS process has achieved 43.2 GOPS or 656 GOPS/W. Experiments using the fabricated chip have shown successful image region segmentation in one‐ and two‐dimensional images.